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A new year is often looked at as an opportunity for making positive changes, and we’re all familiar with the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions—as we end each year and look forward to the next, we take stock of the things we want to improve upon or change in our lives. Those among us

In 1991 the internet, as we know it was born. It’s been said the first known online purchase was a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut in 1994. Businesses started developing an internet presence in the mid 1990s because it became obvious consumers would start doing research online before choosing service or product providers. You got the memo years ago. You have

Growing your Business Using #Social Media Imagine 40 years ago… no internet, no mobile apps, and no email. People would go selling door-to-door, use their local phone book, or get referrals from friends to help grow their business. Business development and marketing within businesses looked vastly different back then compared to today. Growing your business

Are you really WITH your clients and colleagues? Check out this interview with Bill George that will shed light on how three types of empathy add value to all of your relationships: Good stuff – especially for accountants (and engineers )who are trained to be more analytical than relationship-oriented. When you show deep empathy

Look – he’s talking about you, the Millennial Accountant! … powerful forces are reshaping the marketplace, and CPA marketing must adapt to keep up. What are these changes, and how can firms advance their marketing practices to get ahead? Let’s take a closer look. … Add to this potent mix the emergence of millennials – many

Wherever you are on your career path, honing your leadership skills will serve you well. No one ever became a great leader without first becoming a great communicator. Great leaders connect with people on an emotional level every time they speak. Their words inspire others to achieve more than they ever thought possible. Great communicators

Cost Segregation – A Useful Tool for CPAs A common depreciation scheme for a real estate purchase is to incorporate the entire cost of the building into a 39-year straight-line depreciation schedule. The cost segregation approach to depreciation provides a money-saving alternative that can lower tax bills and increase cash flow. Under cost segregation, the

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Our first study using Echo was on a building that was purchased in 2012 for $350,000. The additional depreciation deduction in 2014 was $31,000 and we were able to do a late partial asset disposition for an additional deduction of $23,000. We now have detail on all of the components of the building to comply with the Tangible Property Regulations.

Echo is a cost effective and streamlined approach to doing a Cost Segregation study and saving our client’s tax dollars.

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The third piece of Cost Seg is Legal Analysis. Once Echo has the costs for all the items, it needs to evaluate each item under the current Cost Seg body of law. This process without a doubt is vital and quite complicated. Although it has evolved, there is conflict in the law, it’s a little dicey.

Echo has to leverage court cases against the facts and circumstances of your property, to determine which items can be reclassified from Section 1250 real property to Section 1245 personal property.

Then it applies what’s called the MACRS Asset Classification System accordingly. Then Echo can recompute depreciation based on each item’s life, method and convention, and calculate that catch-up depreciation, if available.

Ultimately, Echo will be able to complete the complicated tax Form 3115 – Change in Accounting Method to be included in the owner’s next tax return.

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Learn More: Construction Cost Estimating

The second step in Cost Seg is Construction Cost Estimating (CCE). Echo is going to review the supporting documents you gather – and extract any pertinent project data. Echo then does quantity takeoffs from the drawings (if you have any) – and your pictures from the field.

In the CCE step – Echo’s construction cost analysis is going to use your submitted info to build up the cost to re-build the building submitted. If you built the building (or you have actual costs) Echo will use that data, but if you don’t, we’ll rely on our database of national construction cost data.

Echo has the construction experience to determine what it would cost to build that building today, as it sits when you did the OSV. This concept is called “Reconstruction Cost New”, or “RCN”. This is a very important legal concept. There are consultants out there that don’t do it right. They do not account for all the pieces and parts of the project. They only account for the items that they believe can be reclassified as personal property.

However, until you gain ALL of the pieces – including the total cost (RCN) – and then pro-rate all these costs so it adds up to what the investor actually paid for it – you don’t really know what the cost of the these personal property items actually is. So once Echo has the RCN – we will do the proration – so that everything ties out of the basis of the building that’s currently on the Fixed Asset Schedule.

[ CLOSED WINDOW ]

Learn More: Legal Analysis

Echo has to leverage court cases against the facts and circumstances of your property, to determine which items can be reclassified from Section 1250 real property to Section 1245 personal property.

Then it applies what’s called the MACRS Asset Classification System accordingly. Then Echo can recompute depreciation based on each item’s life, method and convention, and calculate that catch-up depreciation, if available.

Ultimately, Echo will be able to complete the complicated tax Form 3115 – Change in Accounting Method to be included in the owner’s next tax return.

In the CCE step – Echo’s construction cost analysis is going to use your submitted info to build up the cost to re-build the building submitted. If you built the building (or you have actual costs) Echo will use that data, but if you don’t, we’ll rely on our database of national construction cost data.

Echo has the construction experience to determine what it would cost to build that building today, as it sits when you did the OSV. This concept is called “Reconstruction Cost New”, or “RCN”. This is a very important legal concept. There are consultants out there that don’t do it right. They do not account for all the pieces and parts of the project. They only account for the items that they believe can be reclassified as personal property.

However, until you gain ALL of the pieces – including the total cost (RCN) – and then pro-rate all these costs so it adds up to what the investor actually paid for it – you don’t really know what the cost of the these personal property items actually is. So once Echo has the RCN – we will do the proration – so that everything ties out of the basis of the building that’s currently on the Fixed Asset Schedule.